Mount Bromo
We have spent the last couple of days in the mountains in eastern Java. We caught a train from Yogyakarta to Surabaya early on Saturday morning. Clean, comfortable and on time! 4 hrs brought us to Surabaya and a car met us there to take us to our hotel close to the Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park, about 2 1/2 hours by road.
Our hotel, part of the Plataran chain, is set in a splendid location, with far reaching views and wonderful grounds, beautifully planted. At 2,100m above sea level it was much cooler - indeed, quite chilly at times. It brands itself as “above the clouds’, but actually it’s right in and amongst them and it was amazing watching the weather changing literally minute by minute, from sunshine to thick fog and back again. We really enjoyed our time there. A few shots below. Photo 1 and photo 3 were taken about 5 minutes apart.
The main reason for including this location in our trip was to see Mount Bromo - not the tallest volcano in Indonesia, but the easiest to climb! We had booked a trip through the hotel including sunrise, an alfresco picnic and a climb to the crater. It was a very early start, leaving the hotel at 02.30. Our jeep and driver were waiting outside, alongside other jeeps taking other guests from the hotel.
The trip to the volcano is plainly a big thing, both for foreign tourists but also for locals (and apparently particularly busy at weekends). As we drew close to the entrance to the national park, it became clear that there were hundreds of jeeps on the road, all heading for a number of vantage points from which everyone was hoping to see the sun rise over Mount Bromo. We were ‘in position’ by about 03.15 so it was a long wait before it started getting light at about 05.00 and pretty cold. Whilst we got something of a sunrise and could see Mount Bromo smoking gently in the distance, unfortunately it was a cloudy start and we didn’t get the spectacular views of the Tengger caldera that we were hoping for.
Below, 1) sunrise; 2) Bromo; 3) some of the lines of jeeps parked up as we returned from the sunrise spot; and 4) a Google image of what we might have seen had we had a long lens and a clear day!
We returned to the jeep and were driven down a very steep and winding road into the Tengger caldera. This is a huge area some 16km in diameter, within which 4 or 5 later volcanoes have erupted, including Mount Batok, front and centre above, and Mount Bromo, the smoking crater to its left. The big one in the background is Semeru - the tallest volcano in Indonesia at about 3,700m. Our driver took us across the floor of the caldera, a flat expanse of black ash called the Tengger sand sea. On the other side of Mount Batok, the ground gradually became greener and we stopped at a spot where our hotel had set up picnics for us and two other groups of hotel guests. The sun had begun to break through by now and it was beautiful sitting there, munching and enjoying the scenery in some style.
After our picnic, at about 07.30, we retraced our route across the caldera and parked up so we could climb up Mount Bromo. It was very busy, with people either walking up or paying locals to take them most of the way by pony. We walked, of course. Peering into the crater was extraordinary - so much gas and very noisy too - and there were wonderful views all around.
Back to the hotel for a restful day, early dinner and bed!
We have just arrived at Surabaya airport, where we have checked into a basic airport hotel. Tomorrow, Tuesday, we fly to Borneo for 3 days on a boat exploring the Tanjung Puting National Park and hoping to see orang-utans.